Microcystin-producing cyanobacteria are common nuisance organisms in harmful algal blooms in freshwaters around the world. This ground breaking work lead by the Department of Microbiology, University of Tennessee provides a detailed analysis of the genetic diversity within microcystin producing cyanobacteria. Molecular tools offer an advantage over more traditional chemical measures of toxin concentration, as they may serve as a predictor of potential bloom events to come (while toxin measurements suggest that the event, and potential exposures, have already occurred).
To read the full read the abstract published by the American Society of Microbiology, follow this link – “Identifying the Source of Unknown Microcystin Genes and Predicting Microcystin Variants by Comparing Genes within Uncultured Cyanobacterial Cells“
